Sudanese Bible School Re-Opens Despite Islamist Intimidation

Sudanese Bible School Re-Opens Despite Islamist Intimidation

Amid threats of further losses, classes resumed in October at a Bible school and church compound in Khartoum, Sudan, that Muslim extremists torched in April, ASSIST News Service reports. Students and administrators at Gerif West Bible School have yet to fully recover their losses from the April 21 attack, but classes began again on Oct. 15 even as area Muslims try to take school land and broadcast anti-Christian messages from a nearby mosque loudspeaker most Fridays. Muslim leaders have said through the loudspeaker that Christian institutions should not be allowed in Sudan and that the country should be a "purely Islamic state" since the secession of South Sudan in July 2011. "We are expecting the level of persecution to rise in Sudan in the coming days," said a pastor who works at the Bible school, adding that hostilities against churches and Christians were intensifying. Islamist attackers shouting threats against Christians and "Allahu akbar [Allah is greater]" on April 21 broke down the Christian compound wall with a bulldozer and set fire to the school and a church building. Also damaged were a clinic, a home for the elderly, and living quarters. On Sept. 21, the Muslim sheikh who led the attack, Muhammad Abdelkrim, urged area Muslims to tolerate no Christian presence and to have no dealings with them because they were "infidels."